Case Study

"The Emancipation Bill"

Introduction. This Bill was enacted on 13 April 1829 as Roman
Catholic Relief Act (10 George IV, c. 7).

Source. ‘A Bill for the Relief of His Majesty’s Roman Catholic
Subjects’, Hansard (24 March 1829).

Whereas by various Acts of Parliament, certain Restraints and
Disabilities are imposed on the Roman Catholic subjects of His
Majesty, to which other subjects of His Majesty are not liable:
and whereas it is expedient that such restraints and disabilities
shall be from henceforth discontinued: and whereas by various
Acts certain Oaths and certain Declarations, commonly called the
Declaration against Transubstantiation, and the Invocation of
Saints, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as practised in the Church
of Rome, are or may be required to be taken, made and subscribed
by the subjects of His Majesty, as qualifications for sitting and
voting in Parliament, and for the enjoyment of certain offices,
franchises, and civil rights; Be it Enacted by The King’s most
Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present
Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, that from
and after the commencement of this Act, all such parts of the
said Acts as require the said Declarations, or either of them, to
be made or subscribed by any of His Majesty’s Subjects as a
qualification for sitting and voting in Parliament, or for the
exercise or enjoyment of any office, franchise, or civil right,
be and the same are (save as hereinafter provided and excepted)
hereby Repealed.

And be it Enacted, That from and after the commencement of
this Act, it shall be lawful for any person professing the Roman
Catholic religion, being a Peer, or who shall after the
commencement of this Act be returned as a member of the House of
Commons, to sit and vote in either House of Parliament
respectively, being in all other respects duly qualified to sit
and vote therein, upon taking and subscribing the following Oath,
instead of the Oaths of Allegiance, Abjuration, and Supremacy.

‘ I, A. B. do sincerely promise and swear, That I will be
faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King George the
Fourth, and will defend him to the utmost of my power against all
conspiracies and attempts whatever, which shall be made against
his person, crown or dignity; and I will do my utmost endeavour
to disclose and make known to His Majesty, His heirs and
successors, all treasons and traitorous conspiracies which may be
formed against him or them: And I do faithfully promise to
maintain, support and defend, to the utmost of my power, the
succession of the Crown, which succession, by an Act, entitled,
“An Act for the farther Limitation of the Crown, and better
securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject”, is and stands
limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and the
heirs of her body, being Protestants; hereby utterly renouncing
and abjuring any obedience or allegiance unto any other person
claiming or pretending a right to the crown of these realms: And
I do further declare, That it is not an article of my faith, and
that I do renounce, reject and abjure the opinion, that princes
excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any other authority of
the see of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or
by any person whatsoever: And I do declare, That I do not believe
that the Pope of Rome, or any other foreign prince, prelate,
person, state or potentate, hath or ought to have any temporal or
civil jurisdiction, power, superiority or pre-eminence, directly
or indirectly, within this realm. I do swear, That I will defend
to the utmost of my power the settlement of property within this
realm, as established by the laws: And I do hereby disclaim,
disavow, and solemnly abjure any intention to subvert the present
Church Establishment as settled by law within this realm: And I
do solemnly swear, That I never will exercise any privilege tod
which I am or may become entitled, to disturb or weaken the
Protestant religion or Protestant government in the Unitedk
Kingdom: And I do solemnly in the presence of God, profess,
testify, and declare, That I do make this Declaration, and every
part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words of
this Oath, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental
reservation whatsoever. So help me God’.

Provided always, and be it further Enacted, That no Peer,
professing the Roman Catholic religion, and no person, professing
the Roman Catholic religion, who shall be returned a Member of
the House of Commons after the commencement of this Act, shall be
capable of sitting or voting in either House of Parliament
respectively, unless he shall first take and subscribe the oath
hereinbefore appointed and set forth, before the same person, at
the same times and places, and in the same manner as the Oaths
and Declaration now required by law are respectively directed to
be taken made and subscribed; and that any such person professing
the Roman Catholic religion, who shall sit or vote in either
House of Parliament, without having first taken and subscribed in
the manner aforesaid the oath in this Act appointed and set
forth, shall be subject and liable to the same penalties,
forfeitures, and disabilities, and the offence of so sitting or
voting shall be followed and attended by and with the same
consequences as are by law enacted and provided in the case of
persons sitting or voting in either House of Parliament,
respectively, without the taking making and subscribing the Oaths
and the Declaration now required by law.

And be if further Enacted, That it shall be lawful for persons
professing the Roman Catholic religion, to vote at Elections of
Members to serve in Parliament, and also to vote at the elections
of representative Peers of Scotland and Ireland, and to be
elected such representative Peers, being in all other respects
duly qualified, upon taking and subscribing the Oath hereinbefore
appointed and set forth.

And be it further Enacted, That the Oath hereinbefore
appointed and set forth shall be administered to His Majesty’s
subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion, for the purpose
of enabling them to vote in any of the cases aforesaid, in the
same manner, at the same time and by the same officers or other
persons as the oaths for which it is hereby substituted are or
may be now by law administered;

And whereas by a certain Act of the Parliament of Scotland
made in the eighth and ninth Session of the first Parliament of
King William the Third, entitled, “An Act for the preventing the
growth of Popery”, and a certain Declaration or Formula is
therein contained, which it is expedient should no longer be
required to be taken and subscribed; Be it therefore Enacted,
That so much and such parts of any Acts as authorise the said
Declaration or Formula to be tendered, or require the same to be
taken, sworn and subscribed, be and the same are hereby Repealed;

And be it further Enacted, That no person in holy orders in
the Church of Rome, shall be capable of being elected to serve in
Parliament as a Member of the House of Commons; and if any such
person shall be elected to serve in Parliament as aforesaid, such
election shall be void; and if any person, being elected to serve
in parliament as a Member of the House of Commons shall, after
his election, take or receive holy orders in the Church of Rome,
the seat of such person shall immediately become void;

And be it Enacted, That it shall be lawful for any of His
Majesty’s subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion, to
hold, exercise and enjoy all civil and military offices and
places of trust or profit under His Majesty, His heirs or
successors, and to exercise any other franchise or civil right,
except as hereinafter excepted, upon taking and subscribing, at
the times and in the manner hereinafter mentioned, the Oath
hereinbefore appointed and set forth.

Provided always, and be it Enacted, That nothing herein
contained shall be construed to exempt any person professing the
Roman Catholic religion from the necessity of taking any Oath or
Oaths.

Provided also, and be it further Enacted, That nothing herein
contained shall extend or be construed to extend to enable any
person or persons professing the Roman Catholic religion, to hold
or exercise the office of Guardians and Justices of the United
Kingdom, or of Regent of the United Kingdom, under whatever name,
style or title such office may be constituted; nor to enable any
person, otherwise than as he is now by law enabled, to hold or
enjoy the office of Lord High Chancellor, Lord Keeper or Lord
Commissioner of the Great Seal of Great Britain or Ireland; or
the office of Lord Lieutenant, or Lord Deputy, or other Chief
Governor or Governors of Ireland, or His Majesty’s High
commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

And be it Enacted, That every person professing the Roman
Catholic religion, who shall after the commencement of this Act
be placed, elected or chosen in or to the office of mayor,
provost, alderman, recorder, bailiff, town clerk, magistrate,
councillor or common councilman, or in or to any office of
magistracy or place of trust or employment, relating to the
government of any city, corporation, borough, burgh, or district
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, shall
within One calendar month next before or upon his admission into
any of the same respectively, take and subscribe the Oath
hereinbefore appointed and set forth, in the presence of such
person or persons respectively as by the charters or usages of
the said respective cities, corporations, burghs, boroughs or
districts, ought to administer the Oath for due execution of the
said offices or places respectively.

And be it further Enacted, That from and after the passing of
this Act, no Oath or Oaths shall be tendered to, or required to
be taken by His Majesty’s subjects, professing the Roman Catholic
religion, for enabling them to hold or enjoy any real or personal
property, other than such as may by law be tendered to and
required to be taken by His Majesty’s other subjects; and that
the oath herein appointed and set forth, being taken and
subscribed in any of the courts, or before any of the persons
above mentioned, shall be of the same force and effect, to all
intents an purposes, as, and shall stand in the place of, all
Oaths and Declarations required or prescribed by any law now in
force for the relief of His Majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects
from any disabilities, incapacities or penalties; and the proper
officer of any of the courts above–mentioned in which any person
professing the Roman Catholic religion, shall demand to take and
subscribe the Oath herein appointed and set forth, is hereby
authorised and required to administer the said Oath to such
person, and such officer shall make sign and deliver a
certificate of such Oath having been duly taken and subscribed as
often as the same shall be demanded of him upon payment of One
shilling, and such certificate shall be sufficient evidence of
the person therein named having duly taken and subscribed such
Oath.

And whereas the Protestant Episcopal Church of England and
Ireland, and the doctrine, discipline and government thereof, and
likewise the Protestant Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the
doctrine, discipline and government thereof, are by the
respective Acts of Union of England and Scotland and of Great
Britain and Ireland established permanently and inviolably: And
whereas the right and title of Archbishops to their respective
provinces, of Bishops to their sees, and of Deans to their
deaneries, as well in England as in Ireland, have been settled
and established by law; Be it therefore Enacted, That if any
person after the commencement of this Act, other than the person
thereunto authorized by law, shall assume or use the name, style
or title of Archbishop of any province, Bishop of any bishoprick,
or Dean of any deanery, in England or Ireland; he shall for every
such offence forfeit and pay the sum of One hundred pounds.

And be it further Enacted, That if any Roman Catholic
Ecclesiastic, or any member of any of the orders, communities or
societies hereinafter mentioned, shall, after the commencement of
this Act, exercise any of the rites or ceremonies of the Roman
Catholic religion, or wear the habits of his order, save within
the usual places of worship of the Roman Catholic religion, or in
private houses; such ecclesiastic or other person shall, being
thereof convicted by due course of law, forfeit for every such
offence the sum of Fifty pounds.

And whereas Jesuits and members of other religious orders,
communities or societies, of the church of Rome, bound by
monastic or religious vows, are resident within the United
Kingdom; and it is expedient to make provision for the gradual
suppression and final prohibition of the same therein; Be it
therefore Enacted, That every Jesuit, and every member of any
other religious order, community or society of the church of
Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows, who at the time of the
commencement of this Act shall be within the United Kingdom,
shall within Six calendar months after the commencement of this
Act, deliver to the clerk of the peace of the county or place
where such person shall reside, or his deputy, a notice or
statement, in the form and containing the particulars set forth
in the Schedule to this Act annexed; which notice or statement,
such clerk of the peace, or his deputy, is hereby required to
preserve and register amongst the other records of such county or
place, for which no fee shall be payable, and a copy of which
said notice or statement shall be by such clerk of the peace, or
his deputy, forthwith transmitted to the chief secretary of the
Lord Lieutenant, or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland,
if such person shall reside in Ireland, or if in Great Britain,
to one of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State; and in
case any person shall offend in the premises, he shall forfeit
and pay to His Majesty, for every calendar month during which he
shall remain in the United Kingdom without having delivered such
notice or statement as is hereinbefore required, the sum of Fifty
pounds.

And be it further Enacted, That in case any Jesuit, or member
of any such religious order, community or society as aforesaid,
shall after the commencement of this Act, within any part of the
United Kingdom, admit any person to become a regular Ecclesiastic
or brother or member of any such religious order, community or
society, or be aiding or consenting thereto, or shall administer
or cause to be administered, or be aiding or assisting in the
administering or taking any oath, vow or engagement, purporting
or intended to bind the person taking the same to the rules,
ordinances or ceremonies of such religious order, community or
society, every person offending in the premises in England or
Ireland, shall be deemed guilty of a Misdemeanor, and in Scotland
shall be punished by fine and imprisonment.

And be it further Enacted, That in case any person shall after
the commencement of this Act, within any part of this United
Kingdom, be admitted or become a Jesuit or brother or member of
any other such religious order, community or society as
aforesaid, such person shall be deemed and taken to be guilty of
a Misdemeanor, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be
sentenced and ordered to be banished from the United Kingdom for
the term of his natural life.

Provided always, and be it Enacted, That nothing herein
contained shall extend or be construed to extend in any manner to
affect any religious order, community or establishment consisting
of Females bound by religious or monastic vows.